2006 Winter Olympic Games - Opening Ceremonies

Well, I missed some of the opening ceremony. Anyone who is a fan of ceremonies and rituals like me probably watched this event from beginning to end. What I did see was fantastic. The theme was Passion Lives Here and this was no "underlying" theme. The ceremony itself seemed to be a device used to open the charkas of the athletes (and spectators). It began with a shaman beating a drum. Every time it was struck, the drum would shoot a burst of fire into the air. The shaman's drumbeat remained unbroken throughout the ceremony; it became the heartbeat of the ritual itself.

This could also be seen as a fertility ritual...

With the Shaman making the heartbeat, inline skaters all dressed in red were flowing through the arena like a bloodstream through the body.

Suddenly, inline skaters wearing flames on their heads would burst through the "bloodstream" like the kundalini flames rising to the upper charkas.

Open Chakras:

And then, something amazing happened. Peter Gabriel came out and sang these words by John Lennon --- read them:

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world

You may say that I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Here are some other images of the ceremonies:

Out of the ashes...

Arise the Phoenix...
>

Venus:

The Sungod

Enter Mercury:

The illumination of the Royal Arch:

Fiat Lux: